Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow (About Ted Cruz)

Clean Up to His Neck

Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

In Washington these days, in order to get anything done, you have to go along to get along, roll a few logs, scratch a few backs, and trade a few horses. But then, in order to get anything worthwhile done, you have to make everybody who matters angry. This is precisely what Ted Cruz has done.

There will be many inside the Beltway who will now insist that we must not learn the obvious lesson of these last few weeks. Washington is crammed full of people who need to learn something, and their entire livelihood and way of life depend upon them not learning it.This is why they are so slow on the uptake. They are not deficient when it comes to native intelligence. They are not lacking wit; they are lacking in motivation. We pay them trillions to stay unmotivated, and so we get what we pay for.

So step back and look at the events of the last month or so.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 31

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? —Isaiah 53:1

Devotional:
Isaiah does not include merely the men of his own time, but all posterity to the end of the world; for, so long as the reign of Christ shall endure, this must be fulfilled; and therefore believers ought to be fortified by this passage against such a scandal. These words refute the ignorance of those who think that faith is in the power of every person, because preaching is common to all.

Though it is sufficiently evident that all are called to salvation, yet the Prophet expressly states that the external voice is of no avail, if it be not accompanied by a special gift of the Spirit. And whence proceeds the difference, but from the secret election of God, the cause of which is hidden in himself? —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Beria Had His Good Points

We're The Good Guys 

The latest revelations about the UK spying programme are worrying indeed.  They demonstrate just how quickly a so-called Western liberal state can morph into a institution of sinister countenance.

To be sure, both the Left and the Right in Western liberal democracies have had their respective versions of conspiracy.  The Left version has plutocratic capitalists perverting good and just government for pecuniary advantage.  The Right version has secret societies of Marxist bent infiltrating government agencies to work their poison.  Both versions have been pretty whacko at times.  Now, however, reality is trumping weird fiction.

Along came 9/11.  Suddenly, the threat from conspirators became vivid and tangible.

Letter From America (Ask the Saudis)

Henninger: Obama's Credibility Is Melting

Here and abroad, Obama's partners are concluding they cannot trust him. 

Oct. 23, 2013 7:14 p.m. ET
Wall Street Journal


The collapse of ObamaCare is the tip of the iceberg for the magical Obama presidency.

From the moment he emerged in the public eye with his 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention and through his astonishing defeat of the Clintons in 2008, Barack Obama's calling card has been credibility. He speaks, and enough of the world believes to keep his presidency afloat. Or used to.

All of a sudden, from Washington to Riyadh, Barack Obama's credibility is melting.

Amid the predictable collapse the past week of HealthCare.gov's too-complex technology, not enough notice was given to Sen. Marco Rubio's statement that the chances for success on immigration reform are about dead. Why? Because, said Sen. Rubio, there is "a lack of trust" in the president's commitments.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 30

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: —John 12:42

Devotional:
"Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed on him." The murmuring and fierceness of the Jews, in rejecting Christ, having risen to such a height of insolence, it might have been thought that all the people, without exception, conspired against him. But the Evangelist says that amidst the general madness of the nation, there were many who were of a sound mind. A striking instance, truly, of the grace of God; for when ungodliness has once prevailed, it is a sort of universal plague, which infects with its contagion every part of the body.

It is therefore a remarkable gift, and special grace of God, when, amidst a people so corrupt, there are some who remain untainted.

New World Order

Playing the Long Game

Never has so much been promised to so many and been delivered to so few.  When He Who is So Smarter Than Ordinary Men was voted in to the office of the US presidency, Obama promised a new world to--well--the world.  Gone would be the histrionics of previous administrations, the faux risks, the needless wars, the brittle alignments, the rhetoric about Axes of Evil.  Instead a new world of sweet reasonableness would break out.  Big Bully US would become a polite chap in the corner. 

But President Obama has become about as imperious as its possible to get--at least in terms of attitude and in the conducting of foreign affairs.  Well, it's understandable really.  When you are by far and away the smartest guy in the room, having to put up with a bunch of under-achieving dullards would strain the patience of your average demi-god. 

It has been noised about recently that every traditional US ally in the Middle East is fed up with Obama and his government.  He has managed to offend them all.

Letter From Australia (About Deadly Greenist Policies)

Why Greenies Only Make Me See Red

Miranda Devine
The Daily Telegraph
October 23, 2013 12:00AM

BILL Leak, acclaimed cartoonist, lives in one of the loveliest places in Australia: Killcare, on the Central Coast. 

  But one of the consequences of living in the middle of the Australian bush is fire.  And in pretty seachange and treechange communities, you're likely to find yourself in a greenie council dominated by refugees from the city who haven't a clue about the real dangers of living among trees.

So it is that at the start of a dangerous bushfire season, Leak finds himself with a backyard full of trees and flammable material that he is forbidden to clear by Gosford Council on threat of fines as high as $1.1 million.
"Here I am, living on the edge of bushland that could burst into flame at any time, and I'm not allowed to clear the land in my own backyard of trees that, in the event of a fire, will bring the fire straight into my home," he says.

Council flora preservation policies warn that the removal of any native tree over 3m can attract hefty fines.
This "puts homes like mine in grave danger: the refusal of local councils to allow home owners to remove trees that can extend the bushland right up to our own back doors," Leak says.  "The only possible explanation for this is the council is hell-bent on securing Green votes. I'll accept, albeit unwillingly, the indulgence of Greens fantasies up to a point but if and when they cost me my house I think I'll have to say, 'A line has been crossed'."

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 29

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. —Psalm 123:2

Devotional:
"Behold! as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters." This similitude is very suitable to the present case. It implies that without the protection of God true believers have no comfort, are completely disarmed, and exposed to all manner of wrongs, have neither strength nor courage to resist; in short, that their safety depends entirely upon aid derived from another.

Annals of Soft Depostism

Worthy Mockery

In the Annals of Soft-Despotism we lampoon the pathetic works of the all-nannying-state.  This, we remind our readers, is the dominant idolatry of the post-Christian West.  Whereas once men looked to God and His providence to sustain their lives and provide for them, sophisticated moderns now look to the State, as their vaunted secular deity.  The Living God is so passe, so medieval, so primitive.  We are all moderns now and we worship a new shiny god--one we have made ourselves, in our own image.

God, however, sits in the heavens and mocks the rebellious kings of the earth.  This includes Western secular governments, due to their vain attempts to shake of the bonds and cords of God, their Creator.

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath
and terrify them in his fury. (Psalm 2: 4,5)

Behold the wonders of the vast realms of the secularists and their idol.  John Stewart, himself a public acolyte of secularism and statism,  leads us in a hymn of adoration--in this case, to the demi-god Obama and the idolatrous realm of the Federal Government.  The problem: the god is trying to provide health care.  Will the wonders never cease?  Stewart and his followers are miffed because their god has disappointed them, failed them. 

Let the derisive lampooning proceed:

Disingenuous European Politicians

European Parliament: Defeated LGBT-Lobby licking its wounds

Posted on | October 22, 2013 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

 

In the aftermath of their spectacular defeat on the Estrela Report, the homosexualist-abortionist Members of the European Parliament use their internet outlet to inform about their view of the unexpected – and, from their point of view, most undesired – outcome.

What I find particularly remarkable is the following part of their analysis:

“Religious and political conservatives lobbied intensely against this report with outright lies. They wrongly said, for instance, that the report would force Member States to change abortion rules, or include mandatory teaching about masturbation to 0-4 year-olds.”

Well, of course it was clear to everyone that the report, having no legally binding effect, could never force Member States to change abortion rules, or impose mandatory rules about teaching masturbation to 0-4 year olds.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 28

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; —Psalm 46:2

Devotional:
"Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed." He concludes by way of inference that the faithful have no reason to be afraid, since God is always ready to deliver them, nay, is also armed with invincible power.

He shows in this that the true and proper proof of our hope consists in this, that, when things are so confused, that the heavens seem as it were to fall with great violence, the earth to remove out of its place, and the mountains to be torn up from their very foundations, we nevertheless continue to preserve and maintain calmness and tranquillity of heart.

It is an easy matter to manifest the appearance of great confidence, so long as we are not placed in imminent danger; but if, in the midst of a general crash of the whole world our minds continue undisturbed and free of trouble, this is an evident proof that we attribute to the power of God the honor which belongs to him.

Encouraging Signs

Not Yet Living Within Our Means, But Progress Nonetheless

And now, a good news story.  One of the things that has bedevilled the New Zealand economy for decades is the dearth of capital.  As a nation which has practised "socialism without doctrines", as historian Michael Bassett put it, we have not saved, nor valued, nor husbanded sufficient capital.  Why save, when the state taxes and distributes, with the goal of creating cradle to the grave security? 

Consequently, the Balance of Payments has run at a deficit for a long, long time.  This econometric statistic measures whether NZ Inc is trading at a surplus or deficit, whether as a nation it is making more than it spends, or whether it is relying upon others outside New Zealand to fund our lifestyles in aggregate.  The perpetual deficit is a record of our having become accustomed to living standards way beyond our national means. 

Gradually this situation is changing.

Sir Lecturealot

Disappointed Fan

Maureen Dowd, Op Ed columnist for the New York Times, is presenting herself as someone once in love, but now realising that her spouse has flaws and faults after all.  The romance is slip slidin' away.

Cat on a Hot Stove

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: October 19, 2013  
New York Times

WASHINGTON — PRESIDENT OBAMA won big.

So why did the moment feel so small? 

At his victory scold in the State Dining Room on Thursday, the president who yearned to be transformational stood beneath an oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln and demanded . . . a farm bill. He also couldn’t resist taking a holier-than-thou tone toward his tail-between-their-legs Tea Party foes. He assumed his favorite role of the shining knight hectoring the benighted: Sir Lecturealot. 

“All of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict,” he sermonized. (We have met the enemy and they are . . . bloggers?) 

Certainly, the House Republicans who held their breath until the country turned blue acted like foolhardy children on what John McCain called “a fool’s errand.”  The country agreed. So it probably wasn’t necessary for papa to preach, overacting the role of weary parent watching the irresponsible kids make their mistakes.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 26

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, —Ephesians 1:18

Devotional:
We clearly perceive how utterly destitute man is of every good, and in want of all the means of salvation. Wherefore, if he seek for relief in his necessities, he must go out of himself, and obtain it from some other quarter.

It has been stated also that the Lord voluntarily and liberally manifests himself in his Christ, in whom he offers us all blessedness instead of our misery, and wealth instead of our poverty; in whom he opens to our view the treasures of heaven, that our faith may be wholly engaged in the contemplation of his beloved Son, that all our expectation may depend on him, and that in him all our hope may rest and be fully satisfied.

This, indeed, is that secret and learned philosophy which cannot be extracted from syllogisms; but is well understood by those whose eyes God has opened, that in his light they may see light.

Letters from the US (On Education)

 Desperation Drives Change

Why do we strongly favour of charter schools?  Because they represent the breaking up of government monopolies.  This is positive for two reasons.  Firstly, it represents in part the crumbling of the soft-despotic state, which is the dominant idolatry of our age.  Secondly, the all embracing, all regulating, all providing state represents a stupid overreach which becomes inevitably racked by incompetence and failure. This opens  opportunities for education to make significant progress and increase its positive impact upon the community.

Communism in the Soviet Union failed to deliver on its promises.  It built huge department stores and shops, stocked with nothing or very little.  It suffered crop failure for sixty-five years, which it blamed on inclement weather.  One of the few things which actually increased and grew in the Soviet Union throughout that time was the length of lines of people queuing up to buy food.  In a state education system there will be many achievements, but few of an educational nature.  In the end the system will break down through the necessary incompetence of the government operating in spheres beyond its competence and proper duty.

Charter schools are non-government controlled; they offer better educational results simply because they are free to excel, rather than being bound to comply with nanny-state.  Bad or inadequate charter schools fail and go out of existence, being overtaken by better schools--just like any other service business.  Bad or inadequate government schools usually linger on in the twilight for decades, cocooned and protected by Nanny, whilst educational progress stultifies.. 

A couple of recent articles on charter schools in the US illustrate the hugely positive impact they are having on the education industry in some cities and states.  The first example is New Orleans.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Like a Muddied Spring

Posted on Saturday, October 19, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

Some questions have arisen in the course of my recent posts on the responsibility of Christian leaders to know where the central evil in our day resides.

In a recent exchange, I said there are many, many bad Republicans, and no good Democrats. I should have made clear in saying this that I was talking about our options on the ballot, and not about the character of every last person in the electorate.

I also promised one commenter that I needed to develop further why there is a discrepancy between how I treat Christians who support Republicans and Christians who support someone like Obama. It is a difference made necessary by the hypocrisy of the Republican establishment, and the sincerity of the true blues in the back ranks who actually believe the party platform.

If you have two political parties, say, and one of them is formally and overtly dedicated to the proposition that every pregnant woman has a constitutional right to kill her baby, and that people who question this are filled with hate. And say that the other party is formally dedicated to the proposition that this practice of abortion should be outlawed. Suppose further that this second party is riddled with hypocrisy, and a bunch of the leaders would happily join forces with the murderous party if they could. But they cannot afford to show their true colors because they have a heavy constituency that is not hypocritical on this issue at all, and genuinely and sincerely wants to outlaw the killing of babies.

Now it can be morally culpable to believe the pro-life protestations of a hypocrite, but that is not nearly as culpable as supporting a man who says outright that the killing must continue. Obama says, as a matter of he thinks is principle, that a million Americans a year must continue to have their lives sacrificed on the altars of our lusts. Only he calls it rights, not lusts. Millions of evangelical Christians supported him, voted for him, and were grateful to God for his election.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 25

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: —I Timothy 1:5

Devotional:
Now let us fall down before the face of our good God, acknowledging our faults, desiring him that it would please him to cleanse us, and touch us so to the quick that we may learn to renounce whatever is of this world and of our flesh, and that we may take pains to come to him; yea, and that in such a sort that he may receive us as his children.

And seeing it has pleased him to bring us to faith, by the knowledge of his truth, that it would please him to guide us even to the end, and hold us fast by the hand, that we never may be turned away from his holy calling. —Sermons

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Greenist Complicity in Australian Bush Fires

From Another Planet

Australia is facing another bush fire crisis, this time in New South Wales.  It's serious.  News announcers are sonorously blaming high temperatures (typical for Australia) and strong winds (also de rigueur).  But something is missing.  In order to have bush fires, there has to be another ingredient.  Fuel.  But, you will object, why state the obvious?  Clearly the bush represents fuel, non? 

Ah, yes.  But there is bush fuel and bush fuel.  And there is much more of the latter kind than there once was.  Prior to greenism taking over the hearts and minds of Australians, bush fires used to be combated by a diversified strategy--like any good war.  One key method was to keep roads or tracks into the bush maintained, allowing effective access for firefighters.  Another was to allow cattle to graze in the bush.  Another was to put the bush to the match to conduct controlled burn offs.  The objective was to reduce the wooden detritus of the bush on the ground which, if allowed to build up naturally, becomes perfect fuel for fires.  A bush tinderbox.  Active prevention reduced the risks.

All that has gone by the wayside, courtesy of greenist folly.  Piers Akerman, recently wrote the following in the Daily Telegraph:

Letter From Europe (About Compulsory Child Abuse)

European Parliament: extremist “sexual health and rights” report to promote compulsory child abuse

Posted on | October 18, 2013 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

Dear Friends, in a recent post we informed you about an “own-initiative-report” on “sexual and reproductive health and rights” that will be voted at next week’s plenary session at the European Parliament. We informed you of the dangerous content of this draft report, which seeks inter alia to turn abortion into a “human right”, subverts the freedom of conscience of medical practitioners, negates the role of parents as primary educators of their children, and the right of children to know their biological parents.

MEP Edite Estrela: does she know what she is proposing?

All this is of course not new. Indeed, when the radical gay-plus-abortion-lobby pulls all is forces together to set up a wish-list, the outcome is foreseeable, and no one should be surprised about it.

It is only upon a second, more careful, reading that I have discovered how insidious this report really is. It is actually much worse than I ever expected, and I must give the author of the draft, the Portuguese radical-left MEP Edite Estrela, the benefit of doubt: probably even she is not fully aware of what she is proposing. And if she isn’t, then the vast majority of the (predominantly socialist, communist, green and liberal) Members of the European Parliament who plan to vote for this report are not aware either.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 24

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; —Isaiah 49:2

Devotional:
The present question is not about the person of Christ, but about the whole body of the Church. We must indeed begin with the Head, but we must come next to the members; and to all the ministers of the Word must be applied what is here affirmed concerning Christ; for to them is given such efficacy of the Word, that they may not idly beat the air with their voices, but may reach the hearts and touch them to the quick.

Orwellian Prophecies

No Surprises There

All political ideologies, of whatever stripe, seek to control language and vocabulary.  George Orwell portrayed this so powerfully in 1984 and Animal Farm.  He coined the term "newspeak".  If you can legislate or require certain descriptors or nouns or verbs you can influence the way people think about issues.  You can shape the mind and opinion.

The use of the word "gay" as a noun substituting or replacing "homosexual" or "lesbian" is a classic example of modern newspeak.  Regrettably it has sullied a wonderful English adjective, and we are all the poorer for it.  Sometimes newspeak is so politicised and so connected to a government's policies an incoming administration will change some of the language of official communication and government administration to reflect its view of reality.

In Australia, the incoming Liberal Coalition is changing some nouns and adjectives used to denote folk arriving on Australian shores by boats (mainly), declaring themselves refugees and seeking asylum.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

A Tishbite at the National Prayer Breakfast

Posted on Friday, October 18, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

I would like to follow up on my two previous posts found here and here with a few additional comments.
Political engagement is messy, and so welcome to planet earth. When actual political controversies are going on, they are . . . well, controversies. It takes backbone to get in there and fight. When you do that, people don’t like it.

When the controversies are over, one side won and memorials are built in honor of the victors. Sometimes the victors deserve the memorials and sometimes they don’t, but they always get them.

Now downstream, the Lord taught us that those most prone to appeal to the tombs of the prophets are the very same people who would have murdered those very prophets if given the opportunity.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 23

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. —Isaiah 53:12

Devotional:
After all this, he adds: he prayed for the wicked. This is especially added to show that in his death and passion, Jesus Christ bore the priestly office. Without this we should not have everything necessary for the assurance of our salvation.

It is true that, since the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is the sacrifice by which our sins are wiped out, his blood is our cleansing, the purpose of his obedience is to abolish all our rebellions and to win righteousness for us. We have something to rejoice at in this.

But it is not all; for we are told that when we call upon the name of God we shall be saved. But how can we have access to God? What boldness it is, to come to pray to him! yes, to call him plainly and openly our Father.

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

Potemkin Dialogues

In New Zealand we are familiar with the tools of propaganda-by-stealth.  The way it works is like this.  A government (usually left-wing in orientation) wants to move society towards its longer term goals.  In order to do so, it must persuade the electorate to where it becomes sympathetic with, and supportive of, its programme. 

Infiltrating the schools is an obvious method.  It can work, but unfortunately, it has a very long lead time.  Usually the current crop of politicians and government administrations have long since departed for the netherworld before the crop can be reaped.  More quick payback and progress is required.

In New Zealand the following method was employed by the previous Labour administration, led by Helen Clarke, a left-wing politician who had a very clear view of where she believed society should be heading.  Firstly, fund pressure groups whose ideology and sympathies are similar to your own.

Not So Definitive After All

Problems with scientific research

How science goes wrong

Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change itself

The Economist

Oct 19th 2013

A SIMPLE idea underpins science: “trust, but verify”. Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed the world beyond recognition, and overwhelmingly for the better.
But success can breed complacency. Modern scientists are doing too much trusting and not enough verifying—to the detriment of the whole of science, and of humanity.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 22

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. —Zechariah 1: 3

Devotional:
We must bear in mind that according to the common usage of Scripture, whenever God exhorts us to repentance, he does not regard what our capacity is, but demands what is justly his right.

Hence the Papists adopt what is absurd when they deduce the power of free-will from the command or exhortation to repent; God, they say, would not have commanded what is not in our power to do.

This is a foolish way of reasoning; for if everything which God requires were in our power, the grace of the Holy Spirit would be superfluous;

Too Polite to Mention

 Persecution of Islam On the Rise 

We often forget that Muslims are dying violent deaths every day.  Arguably, Islam is the most persecuted religion in the world.  But what is also forgotten is that Islam is also the most persecuting religion on the globe--and that its persecution is most often directed at fellow Muslims.  The world is exploding with Muslim upon Muslim violence: moreover, it is not just a recent phenomenon.  It is, however, a growing problem.  Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have all experienced increasing Islamic persecution of Muslims this past year. 

Some have argued that this is due to a lack of unifying structures and authorities.

Letter From Australia (About Respek)

As a community, we owe each other respect

Andrew Bolt
Herald Sun
October 16, 2013 8:00PM

IS IT just that I've hit 54 and become more cranky? Or has the presumption of some people this week finally crossed a line? 
 
Sure, we've tolerated for an absurdly long time the pushy politicians, activists and special interests helping themselves to our wallets and our freedoms. Too rarely have they been called out for treating the rest of us as mere props or money-trees. Or as fools who'll accept rubbish excuses while the imposters just help themselves to what isn't theirs.

But this week we haven't just had former Labor president Michael Williamson plead guilty to defrauding his Health Service Union members of $1 million, on top of his $500,000 a year salary. We've also heard a cacophony of oinking and snuffling and bellowing from people with a truly outsized sense of entitlement and no seeming shame about it.

Some examples?

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 21

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. —Psalm 127:3

Devotional:
In order to set forth this blessing of God—to have offspring—in a clear light, Solomon commends a virtuous and generous disposition in children. The similitude introduced for this purpose is, that as an archer is armed with a well-furnished bow, so men are defended by their children, as it were with a bow and an arrow.

The Prophet means that those who are without children are in a manner unarmed; for what else is it to be childless but to be solitary? It is no small gift of God for a man to be renewed in his posterity; for God then gives him new strength, that he who otherwise would straightway decay, may begin as it were to live a second time.

It is also to be added that unless men regard their children as the gift of God, they are careless and reluctant in providing for their support, just as on the other hand this knowledge contributes to encourage them in bringing up their offspring.

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

Lies, Half-Truths, and Sheeple

The idea of preventative public health has been swallowed hook, line, and sinker by the Chattering Classes.  Intuitively it makes sense.  Tax payers fork out billions of scarce, hard-earned dollars paying for the health care of others.  The more healthy a person is, the less they will cost the public health system.  Therefore, spending on prevention (to stay healthy) saves public money in the long term.  So, frugality with the public purse is a powerful argument for spending gazillions on preventative health care.  Specious, but powerful.  Such are the days of ignorance in which we walk.

To the frugality argument is added a second powerful, emotive appeal.  Preventative health measures appear to save lives.  If one has a certain sub-set of genes, and if one avoids high carbohydrate diets topped with lashings of sugar, one will likely avoid obesity and its attendant health problems, such as Type II diabetes and heart attacks.  In New Zealand we have whole ethnic populations with such susceptibilities.  Clearly, eating more appropriately saves lives.  So, who could argue against preventative health?  It saves money and it saves lives. 

Here is one of the world's great prophets on the matter--President Obama:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Empty Pulpits or Full Churches?

Posted on Wednesday, October 16, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

I would like to draw your attention to Brad Littlejohn’s rejoinder to my post here. That rejoinder is down in the comments. This was my post on how an Obama vote disqualifies a man from ministry. Thanks to Brad for the comments, and for the opportunity for me to follow up on my initial post.

First, I happily grant that being a practitioner of abortion and presiding over a nation in which it is legal to be such a practitioner are two very different things. But while they are very different, depending on the stance and outlook of the president, the morality of the two positions can overlap completely. There is a distinction between the man who does mischief himself (Ps. 10:7) and the man who frames mischief with a law (Ps. 94:20), but not a moral distinction.

The Hindu practice of suttee and the laws that allowed it to continue were very different, but equally wicked.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 19

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Set a watch, 0 Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. —Psalm 141:3

Devotional:
Immediately thereafter he explains himself to mean, that he would not desire to strive with them in wickedness, and thus make himself like his enemies. Had that monk of whom Eusebius makes mention duly reflected upon this, he would not have fallen into that silly fallacy of imagining that he had shown himself the perfect scholar by observing silence for a whole term of seven years.

Hearing that the regulation of the tongue was a rare virtue, he betook himself to a distant solitude, from which he did not return to his master for seven years; and being asked the cause of his long absence, replied that he had been meditating upon what he had learned from this verse.

It would have been proper to have asked him at the same time whether during the interim he had thought nothing as well as spoken nothing. For the two things stand connected—being silent and being free from the charge of evil thoughts. It is very possible that although he observed silence, he had many ungodly thoughts, and these are worse than vain words.

A Sad Passing

In Memoriam: Greg King

The Christian world-view has a deep respect for defence lawyers.  To some this may come as a surprise, since often Christians are critical of governments and societies which no longer believe in retributive justice. How can these two positions be held in the same world-view?  Substantially both views are downstream currents flowing from a deeper truth: the universal depravity of the human race.

Usually, when Christians mention such a belief folks left, right, and centre become profusely vituperative.  They splenetically disgorge nonsensical accusations about Christians being "haters of the human race" (an ancient charge, being first recorded by Tacitus to justify Nero's persecution of Christians). But a moment's honest reflection usually suffices to set the record straight.  Who amongst us has never lost his temper?  Who has never told a lie?  The fact that such evils are so ordinary and commonplace as to be regarded as trivial and minor matters amongst us is proof of the universal extent and depth of our common depravity. 

Thus, Christians take crime and its right punishment very seriously.  But at the same time, the Christian world-view values highly competent, highly skilled defence lawyers.  How can these be reconciled?  Very easily.

Letter From the US (About Europe)

Europe Tries Welfare Reform

Even Scandinavians want to cut back on benefits to encourage growth.

By Michael Tanner

National Review Online

October 16, 2013 12:00 AM 

 

If Congress — once it reopens the government and gets back to its usual business of redistributing taxpayers’ money — has any interest in reforming our burgeoning welfare state, they might look, of all places, to Europe, where serious reforms are underway.

Leading the way is Great Britain. While in the United States the federal government funds 126 separate anti-poverty programs, 72 of which provide cash or in-kind benefits to individuals, Britain is consolidating its six major welfare programs (the jobseeker’s allowance, the income-support allowance, the employment-support allowance, the child tax credit, the working tax credit, and housing benefits) into a single grant.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 18

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. —Psalm 6:1

Devotional:
We see how thoughtless and insensible almost all men are on this subject; for while they cry out that they are afflicted and miserable, scarcely one among a hundred looks to the hand which strikes. From whatever quarter, therefore, our afflictions come, let us learn to turn our thoughts instantly to God, and to acknowledge him as the Judge who summons us as guilty before his tribunal, since we, of our own accord, do not anticipate his judgment.

David does not simply ascribe to God the afflictions under which he is now suffering, but acknowledges them to be the just recompense of his sins. He does not take God to task as if he had been an enemy, treating him with cruelty without any just cause; but yielding to him the right of rebuking and chastening, he desires and prays only that bounds may be set to the punishment inflicted upon him.

The Best and the Brightest

What The Fool Says in His Folly

The more the secularist investigates the universe by-his-lights, the more he is driven to meaninglessness.  Not despair necessarily.  Some optimistic secularists relish in the meaninglessness of the universe (or so they say) as a backdrop to their own glory.  "Sure all is meaningless; there is no point to any of it--but I choose to deny it; I refuse to bow to it.  I am like the titans of old.  I choose to live heroically, as if there is meaning in it all.  I shake my fist at the storm of  meaningless fate and declare my own grandeur."

Noble stuff.  Pathetic and useless, of course, but nevertheless a powerful testimony to the traitor in the room.  Human nature just cannot live consistently with itself when it propounds a secular, atheistic and materialistic world. 

Bertrand Russell, one of the more celebrated atheists in the middle decades of the previous century, painted graphically and realistically the materialist world-view:

Music and Hymns

Planning Ahead

Many years ago our young daughter explained how much she loved the hymn, "It is Well With My Soul".  She stipulated that she would like it to be sung at her funeral.  We suggested that it was far more likely in the ordinary providence of our Lord that she would be choosing the hymns at our funerals, not we at hers.  But it was a great choice, nonetheless.

Here is Sam Robson's a capella arrangement.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 17

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC website

Bible Text:
That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; —I Timothy 6: 14, 15

Devotional:
Unbelievers take us for fools and witless idiots; and Saint Peter says that this must be fulfilled in us. As Isaiah complained of it in his time, the Christians must endure the like at this day.

And in the meantime we see that we are afraid of very little things; if a mouse but run before our eyes, we are all amazed. And again, we are tied fast by the legs in this world, for when we see the pomp of earthly princes, when we see the boasting of the world, we are by and by possessed with a false judgment; we know no more what the kingdom of God means; we quite forget that.

And what is the cause of it? That we do not listen to what Saint Paul says here. For we might easily defy all these earthly principalities when they lift up themselves against God, if we were well persuaded that God is supreme Prince, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If this were well imprinted on our minds, all the pelting trifles of this world would be nothing to astonish us.

New Human Rights Discovered

Giving Death Its Due

Well, we are really starting to cook with gas now.  The European Court of Human Rights has decided to rule on the matter of assisted suicide.  How come?

This judgment rests on the notion that suicide has acquired the quality of an individual right or freedom (§ 66), and so a deontological norm cannot impede its exercise: it is for the law to regulate, even if it is realised through the art of medicine.

In other words, since suicide is a human right, the state and the courts had better ensure that folk get to do it.  Failure to do so, to impede them, would be a breach of human rights.  Sickness, illness, physical decrepitude (a kind of deontological norm) has nothing to do with it.   Don't you just love that phrase: "deontological norm" to describe a rule, such as human affliction which is undermining quality of life.  Such afflictions, which are usually offered as justifying a person killing themselves, are irrelevant.  Killing oneself is a human right, a human freedom, you see. 

Now we perceive great benefits to come from this.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Rabbits Should Know What Hawks Look Like

Posted on Monday, October 14, 2013 

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

I was talking with a friend about the political monkey house that is our time, and the subject moved to the condition of the church in all of this.

First, some ball park data. About one quarter of the electorate self-identifies as evangelical, and I am talking here about the white, born-again types. Please note that this is a kind of believer that is closer to what Gallup thinks an evangelical Christian is than the apostle Paul did, but it will do for the rough cut numbers. In 2012, about 21% of them voted for Obama. This works out to about 6.4 million. And that would include — unless I miss my guess — quite a few of their pastors.

So let me say the controversial thing first, albeit at a minimal level, explain briefly what I do not mean by it, and then briefly defend it. Any evangelical leader — by which I mean someone like a minister or an elder — who voted for Obama the second time, is not qualified for the office he holds, and should resign that office.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 16

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC website.

Bible Text:
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. —Acts 1:5

Devotional:
That is frivolous which some gather out of this place, namely that the baptism of John and the baptism of Christ were different. For he does not dispute concerning baptism in this place, but only makes a comparison between the person of John and the person of Christ.

When John says that he baptized with water only, he does not reason of what sort his baptism was; but what he himself was, lest he should claim that to himself which was proper to Christ. As also the ministers in these days ought not to speak otherwise of themselves; but they must acknowledge Christ to be the author of all those things which they prefigure in the outward baptism, and leave nothing to themselves except only the outward administration.

Frogs in a Boiling Pot of Crime, Part VI

When Fifteenth is Better Than Third

Official crime statistics are one way to gauge the levels of criminality in a society.  But they can be misleading.  Official statistics represent what the police and courts have accomplished in dealing with crime.  They do not measure the actual incidence of crime in the society.

A lot of crime goes unreported.  Still more is reported, but is unable to be investigated because there are no witnesses, no leads.  A classic is the grabbed purse or wallet.  A snatch, run off, rip out the cash, dump the wallet anywhere.  Or, leaving one's wallet unattended for a fraction of a second in a bar and it can disappear, with no-one the wiser.  Unless witnesses can come forward to describe the offender and give details, very little can be done even to begin an investigation. 

Consequently, it is likely that official statistics substantially understate the incidence of crime.  But how substantially?

Letter From Australia (About Dinosaurs)

The Not-So-Lucky Country

PIERS AKERMAN
The Sunday Telegraph
October 12, 2013

[In New Zealand, the union movement has routinely criticised New Zealand for having wages set significantly lower than Australia.  Thousands of kiwis have crossed the ditch in search not only of employment, but of higher wages offered in that country.  But there is another side to the story.  Australia is starting to price itself out of world markets, due to its high wage policies.  Piers Akerman argues that you can blame the trade unions and the collusion of  big business--who have gone along to get along.  More fools them.  Ed.]

IF your son or daughter can't find an entry-level job in the restaurant or tourism industry as the school year comes to an end, you can blame the dinosaurs in the trade union movement, Labor's Fair Work commissioner Anne Gooley and Big Business.  Nothing chokes new employment in these areas more than Gooley's decision to ignore calls to alter the current job-destroying penalty rate regime and reject the argument for reduced employment costs and more jobs.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 15

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. —I Timothy 1:2

Devotional:
But mark here the order which we must keep. It is this: that first of all it would please God to receive us into his grace, and then to send us those things which are profitable and necessary for us.

True it is that our nature will always draw the contrary way, even as a sick man will be more tormented with his pang than with the cause of his disease. In like sort, when we pray to God, we desire him to give us bread to eat, and that he would send us whatsoever is necessary for us; if we be sick, that he would heal us; and if we want anything, that he would send it to us.

Mourning The Lost Profession

The Black Widow Endemic in Schools

A new report from NZ Initiative is about to be published.  It will focus upon government schools.  The pre-release promo says:

What kinds of things matter for student achievement? Is it class size, school journals, the school building, or a flash new gym?  These may play a role at the margin, but they pale in significance next to what research conclusively shows is the most important in-school factor for student achievement: the teacher.

On Monday, The New Zealand Initiative releases its first education report on teacher quality, and it comes at quite a precipitous time. As the ageing teacher workforce moves into retirement, New Zealand needs to not only replenish this workforce but attract the best and brightest into the teaching profession. And then, for teachers to develop to their full potential and to retain the best teachers, teaching must be a challenging and rewarding career.

Apparently the report will focus upon the issues of teacher remuneration and career paths which now represent serious impediments to teaching being a life-long career for those who are actually gifted teachers.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

School Growing Pains

School Rules Are Not the Answer

Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013  
By Douglas Wilson
Blog and Mablog

One of the great challenges faced by classical and Christian schools is the challenge of growth swamping that which is the cause of the growth. If there is one three-man lifeboat in the water, and a hundred people also in the water, the thing that makes the lifeboat an object of desire is the same reason it won’t be floating for very long.

Classical Christian schools have a great pedagogical method — it works. Moreover, the people who were crazy enough to see that it was going to work are those parents who were visionary enough to establish the school in the first place. They were dedicated parents, usually with godly homes, and when the school got established in its first few years, the culture of the student body was determined as much by the spiritual and cultural condition of the founding families as anything else. That, as much as the pedagogical method, is the reason the school became a really attractive place to be.

But back in the pure days, it was hard to pay the teachers. It was hard to keep the lights on. It was hard to find someone who would do the janitorial work. So when the school started to grow, the first sensation (felt by the board) was a sense of relief. Ahhhh.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 14

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. —Psalm 91:11, 12

Devotional:
But the Scripture principally insists on what might conduce most to our consolation, and the confirmation of our faith—that the angels are dispensers and administrators of the Divine beneficence towards us; and therefore it informs us that they guard our safety, undertake our defense, direct our ways, and exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befall us.

The declarations are universal, belonging primarily to Christ the head of the Church, and then to all the faithful; "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Again, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them."

Frogs in a Boiling Pot of Crime, Part V

Winning Some Battles, But Not Yet The War

The tide of crime seems to be receding in New Zealand, according to the latest statistics released by police.  The Minister of Police has claimed the following in a press release:

Police Minister Anne Tolley has praised frontline Police, with recorded offences down for the third fiscal year in a row, and a massive 17.4 per cent drop in crimes in the past three years.  There were 29,337 fewer recorded offences in the year to June 2013, a fall of 7.4 per cent, representing a 7.9 per cent drop per head of population.  In the past three years there were 76,775 fewer crimes, with a fall of 5.2 per cent last year, and 5.8 per cent the previous year.

This is good news, although it needs qualifying (see below).  There was some bad news, however, tucked away at the bottom of the release:

However, there were increases in both dwelling assaults and sexual assaults.  “Both of these areas, which we know include domestic violence incidents, are under-reported, and I would continue to encourage victims to come forward,” says Mrs Tolley.  “I am assured by Police that they are continuing to treat these issues as a high priority, as they work towards compiling definitive family violence statistics.

There is no doubt the NZ Police are much smarter in how they go about their work these days.

Letter From NZ (About Those Greenpeace "Activists")

Arctic activists knew the risks

Sean Plunket
Stuff, 
11/10/2013


I've never been held in a jail cell but it is, I imagine, not a very pleasant experience. I also imagine Russia would be one of the worst places to find yourself incarcerated, along with North Korea, Myanmar, El Salvador and China.

Certainly the 30 Greenpeace activists from 18 different nations currently held at the pleasure of Vladimir Putin's government are finding the going pretty rugged. Among their various complaints is the fact that it is cold, there are some nasty people in jail with them and the guards do not speak English. Well what did they expect – Sky [TV] and a sauna?

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 12

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. —John 20:16

Devotional:
"Jesus saith unto her, Mary." That Christ allowed Mary, a short time, to fall into a mistake, was useful for confirming her faith; but now, by a single word, he corrects her mistake. He had formerly addressed her, but his discourse seemed to be that of an unknown person; he now assumes the character of the Master, and addresses his disciple by name, as we have seen that the good shepherd calls to him by name every sheep of his Book (John 10:3).

That voice of the shepherd, therefore, enters into Mary's heart, opens her eyes, arouses all her senses, and affects her in such a manner that she immediately surrenders herself to Christ.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 12

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! —Isaiah 40:9

Devotional:
"That bringest tidings." Yet we ought carefully to observe this commendation which God bestows on his Church, that it may not be without a clear mark of distinction; for an assembly in which the preaching of heavenly doctrine is not heard does not deserve to be reckoned a Church.

The Calibre of the Modern Politician

Behold the Wonders

The calibre of politicians leaves much to be desired.  We suppose in democracies a society tends to get the politicians it deserves, but nevertheless we tire of our representative pontificating with sonorous solemnity about things they know very little.

In New Zealand the independent Reserve Bank (made independent to prevent politicians meddling with the money supply in a self-interested attempt to garner public support) is charged with the integrity and solvency of the banking system.  To that end it has recently stipulated that mortgage lending banks require house buyers to put down equity of 20 percent of the purchase price or more, for 80 percent of their mortgage books. This effectively stops reckless lending by banks in its tracks.

Antonin Scalia

"Of Course I Believe in Heaven and Hell"

Antonin Scalia, by our lights, is one of the greater justices in US Supreme Court history.  He has been a resolute opponent of judicial activism which sees the role of a justice and the courts to make law, not test whether human actions and arrangements are lawful or not. 

He has been a champion of  "originalism" and "textualism".  The latter insists on paying attention to the actual text of the law (not the more subjective focus upon intent, or motive, or goals of legislation).  The former insists on basing opinions upon the actual text of the constitution itself.  He is not interested in a constantly evolving constitution, where the latter becomes a wax nose to be twisted and reshaped according to the passing fancies of a generation. 

Scalia was interviewed recently by Jennifer Senior.  The whole text was published in the New York Magazine.

Here are some excerpts:

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 11

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you. —Zechariah 8:23

Devotional:
The prophet at the same time not only commends humility, but also exhorts all God's children to cultivate unity and concord. For whosoever tears asunder the Church of God, disunites himself from Christ, who is the head, and who would have all his members to be united together.

Leopards and Their Spots

Remember the Hawkes Bay Health Board

Karl Du Fresne is a journalist who has seen many winters.  He has a long memory.  He recently wrote the following piece on new Labour leader, David Cunliffe: 

NEW Labour Leader David Cunliffe is getting good notices, even from those at the opposite end of the political spectrum, such as former ACT leader Rodney Hide. But I'm withholding judgment. I decided I disliked Mr Cunliffe when, as health minister in the Clark government, he sacked the democratically elected Hawke's Bay District Health Board, describing them as "a nasty little nest of self-perpetuating provincial elites".

He struck me then as a politician who liked to throw his weight around just because he could.  Nothing since then has changed my view of him.

Be Thou My Vision . . .

Oaths We Have Taken

Sam Robson reminds us of oaths we have taken, and declarations of loyalty we have made, to our High King.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 10

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website.

Bible Text:
Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man's disciples? He saith, I am not. —John 18:17

Devotional:
"Then the maid that kept the door said to Peter...." Peter is introduced into the high priest's hall; but it cost him very dear, for as soon as he sets his foot within it, he is constrained to deny Christ.

When he stumbles so shamefully at the first step, the foolishness of his boasting is exposed. He had boasted that he would prove to be a valiant champion, and able to meet death with firmness; and now at the voice of a single maid, and that voice without threatening, he is confounded and throws down his arms. Such is a demonstration of the power of man.

Standing Firm

Charter Schools To Be Union Free

Good news for NZ Charter Schools.  The government teachers' union has voted to ostracise them.  All contact with the soon-to-be launched charter schools is VERBOTEN.  The Post Primary Teachers Association has put out a press release which is an hilarious read.  They apparently have no idea how foolish they sound.

Beneath Contempt

Legalisms To Salve Perverted Consciences

Sex selection abortions clarified as perfectly acceptable in the UK.  This has been the consistent testimony of abortion advocates and pro-abortion groups.  This breaking news from The Telegraph:

Ann Furedi, of BPAS, [the UK's largest abortion charity] said the law does not prevent women from choosing a termination on the grounds of gender and she even compared it to abortion after rape.  Mrs Furedi's comments come weeks after it was disclosed that the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] had decided not to prosecute two doctors who were exposed by a Daily Telegraph investigation arranging terminations purely because the unborn baby was a girl.

This is yet another proof of how evil and wicked the whole abortion trade is.  The depraved logic is inescapable: the "thing" inside a woman's womb is not a human being, not a person.  Therefore, the sex of the thing is completely irrelevant when deciding whether to kill it off or not.

What is equally depraved is the ratiocinations issuing forth from the UK prosecution authorities to justify this position (in which they have relied upon advice from the British Medical Association).

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 09

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? —Job 22:2

Devotional:
We see that he compares himself to a husbandman who has a vineyard which, when he has tended it, yields wine to him; or who has a field and reaps corn from it. God in using such figures of speech, declares that he so accounts of our works that they are like pleasant and sweet sacrifices to him.

And he says also that when we do good to the poor, it is as if we did it to him, and he accepts it as done to himself. Jesus Christ speaks thus of it, saying, "Whatsoever you shall do to one of the least of my members, I accept it as if it had been done to my own person."

Parliament's Prayer

Exposing the Curse

In New Zealand the Parliament opens its sessions with a prayer.  The text is as follows:

Almighty God, humbly acknowledging our need for Thy guidance in all things, and laying aside all private and personal interests, we beseech Thee to grant that we may conduct the affairs of this House and of our country to the glory of Thy holy name, the maintenance of true religion and justice, the honour of the Queen, and the public welfare, peace, and tranquillity of New Zealand, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Every so often politicians raise the question of dumping this prayer in favour of one that reflects more comprehensively the beliefs and commitments of the majority of the population.  A Green MP, Gareth Hughes is the latest, writing on his blog:

Speaking in my personal capacity, I think it’s time to have a discussion around it.  Like many Kiwis and MPs I am not a Christian and I don’t think the prayer reflects the rich and varied religious and spiritual life in New Zealand in 2013. To me, it’s an issue of having Parliament – the representatives of the people of New Zealand – actually reflect the people of New Zealand rather than only one religious group. We should have an inclusive ceremonial opening that all kiwis can feel comfortable with, whatever their faith.

So what would a prayer which reflected the "rich and varied religious and spiritual life of New Zealand in 2013" actually look like.

Palin and Crony Capitalism

Facing Off With Smaug and His Treasures

One of the things we have always appreciated about Sarah Palin is her commitment to fighting against corruption and crony capitalism in government and politics.  She fearlessly takes on vested and corrupted interests in her own party, let alone the Democrats. 

Recently, a group of nouveau riche Wall Streeters complained to Republican establishment doyens (otherwise known as Beltway Barnacles) that they found offensive the present Republican Congress's refusal to fund Obama's move to socialise medical care in the United States.  When the Roman Republic became the plaything of wealthy patricians and venal plutocrats, its demise was inevitable.  So will pass the United States.  "We the people" will be replaced by "We the entitled". 

Sarah Palin recently called the them out.  She has a different moral and ethical compass--as revealed in this Breitbart piece. 

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 08

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. —Zechariah 1:3

Devotional:
"Return unto me and I will return unto you." It must be noticed that we cannot enjoy the favor of God even when he kindly offers to be reconciled to us, except we from the heart repent. However graciously, then, God may invite us to himself, and be ready to remit our sins, we yet cannot embrace his offered favor except our sins become hateful to us; for God ceases not to be our judge, except we anticipate him, and condemn ourselves, and deprecate the punishment of our sins.

Cringeworthy Remarks

Dumb

The New Zealand Prime Minister has been asked to chair the negotiations over a Pacific free-trade agreement which will be a side-bar to the upcoming APEC meeting.  President Obama has sent his apologies, due to the "government shutdown" in the United States.  APEC will have to do without him. 

This is quite a public honour for Prime Minister Key.  However, he let himself down when he was asked for his opinion on the present US political imbroglio.

Firstly, he compared Obama's presence at such international meetings to fizz.  We kid you not.  This from Audrey Young, at the NZ Herald:

Reflective Glory

In the Image of God

It is said that when Beethoven wanted to express the glory in the human race in his final, Ninth Symphony, he turned to the greatest instrument of all, the human voice.  In the video below, Sam Robson provides a startling demonstration of how powerful, complex, and beautiful that instrument really is--only in this case, it is being employed properly, to glorify the God of the heavens and the earth. 


Hat Tip: Keeping Stock

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 07

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. —Philippians 4:6

Devotional:
Wherefore, although we are stupid and insensible to our own miseries, he vigilantly watches and guards us, and sometimes affords us unsolicited help, yet it highly concerns us faithfully to pray to him, that our heart may be always inflamed with a serious and ardent desire of seeking, loving, and worshipping him, while we accustom ourselves in all our necessities to resort to him as our sheet anchor.

Further, that no desire or wish, which we should be ashamed for him to know, may enter our minds; when we learn to present our wishes, and so to pour out our whole heart in his presence. Next, that we may be prepared to receive his blessings with true gratitude of soul, and even with grateful acknowledgments; being reminded by our praying that they have come from his hand.

Marketing

Oh What a Lovely War

In 2012 the UK Ministry of Defence produced a paper giving advice on how to "market" war to the public.  The intention was to work out how to increase public support for the various wars the UK was engaged in at the time.  One suggestion made was to make less of repatriation and funeral ceremonies of those who had died.  Downplay the negative.  Accentuate the positive.  That sort of stuff.  Typical marketing fluff.

The document, written in November 2012 and obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, discusses how public reaction to casualties can be influenced and recommends that the armed forces should have "a clear and constant information campaign in order to influence the major areas of press and public opinion". (The Guardian)

The folk don't like hearing and seeing that soldiers and airmen have been killed.  It is a negative.  It ought to be downplayed.  Don't regard these people as heroes who have laid down their lives for the protection of their loved ones, their neighbours, and their nation.   That ends up accentuating the negative, which will reduce "market" appetite and demand for war.

But wait a minute.  This is war we are talking about.

Letter From America (About a Dishonest Englishman)

A Response to Richard Dawkins

He and his supporters have a right to their atheism, but not to intellectual dishonesty about it.

By  Dennis Prager 

October 1, 2013 12:00 AM

National Review Online

This past Friday, CNN conducted an interview with Richard Dawkins, the British biologist most widely known for his polemics against religion and on behalf of atheism.  Asked “whether an absence of religion would leave us without a moral compass,” Dawkins responded: “The very idea that we get a moral compass from religion is horrible.”

This is the crux of the issue for Dawkins and other anti-religion activists — that not only do we not need religion or God for morality but that we would have a considerably more moral world without them.  This argument is so wrong — both rationally and empirically — that its appeal can be explained only by (a) a desire to believe it and (b) an ignorance of history.

First, the rational argument.

If there is no God, the labels “good” and “evil” are merely opinions.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 05

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. —Ezekiel 3:17

Devotional:
It is now added, "Thou shalt hear words from my mouth, and shalt announce them to the people from me."

Here a general rule is prescribed to all prophets and pastors of the Church, namely that they should hear the word from the mouth of God; by which God wishes to exclude whatever men fabricate or invent for themselves. For it is evident when God claimed to himself the right of speaking that he orders all men to be silent and not to offer anything of their own, and then, when he orders them to hear the word from his mouth, that he puts a bridle upon them that they should neither invent anything, nor hanker after their own devices, nor dare to conceive either more or less than the word; and, lastly, we see that whatever men offer of their own selves is here abolished, when God alone wishes to be heard, for he does not mingle himself here with others as in a crowd, as if he wished to be heard only in part.

He assumes to himself, therefore, what we ought to attribute to his supreme command over all things, namely that we should hang upon his lips. —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

The S-Files

Reviving the Dying

And now, a good news story.

Mrs Melrose, 70, was flying ex Brisbane to Auckland on an Air New Zealand flight with her husband John when a life and death drama unfolded. 

Before the flight, Mrs Melrose spent six hours in hospital with stomach pains. Scans failed to reveal any problem and Mrs Melrose was given medicine and told she could fly home from a three-week holiday at Noosa.  But 20 minutes into the flight, she began to feel "extremely uncomfortable" and was moved into business class where she could lie flat. "I went into respiratory arrest and then cardiac arrest," Mrs Melrose, of Bucklands Beach, told the Herald.

A call was made on the aircraft for a doctor and Dr Taylor and two nurses rushed to her aid.  "When I got there, Mary was gasping for air," the Manukau GP said. "I started asking her husband about her health ... and then she just collapsed on me."

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

An American Drubbing

Posted on Monday, September 16, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

I have been addressing, from time to time, the tomfool notion of American exceptionalism.

The central point I have made thus far is that the genuine exceptionalism displayed by the Founders consisted of the fact that they knew that Americans were not exceptional, which was exceptional. They built a form of government that sought to take the venality of all our current and future statesman into account, which was a marvel of prescience.

Having said as much, repeatedly, I want to come at this beast from another angle. Before doing so, allow me to state some of my bona fides. I love apple pie, I own a Winchester 30-30, and I have warm spot in my heart for red-checked tablecloths. I am a loyal son of the Republic, and wish to demonstrate my good will in this matter by giving American exceptionalism a good, old-fashioned American drubbing.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 04

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Incline thine ear, 0 Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. —Isaiah 37:17

Devotional:
"Incline thine ear, 0 Jehovah." From these words we conclude how great was the perplexity of Hezekiah; for the earnestness that pervades the prayer breathes an amazing power of anguish, so that it is easily seen that he had a struggle attended by uncommon difficulty to escape from the temptation.

Though his warmth in prayer shows the strength and eminence of his faith, yet at the same time it exhibits, as in a mirror, the stormy passions.

Testing Ideologies

Ain't No Fig Tree

The terms "ideology" and "ideological" are  used as an insult these days, more often than not.  To accuse your opponent of being ideological implies that they are out of touch with reality, closed minded, impractical, dangerous, even absolutist.  The term, "idealist" less so.  In common parlance, an idealist is someone close to sainthood--a person who puts their ideals and beliefs ahead of themselves and who is willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of a higher, nobler cause.  Usually, however, their devotion it is said that their devotion has put them out of touch with reality.  Which is to say they are slightly mad. 

Whether being ideological or an idealist is good or bad depends upon the ideology in question.  Stalin and Hitler and Mao were ideological.  They could even be said to be idealists, in the sense that they were controlled by a set of ideas bigger than themselves, to which they were committed and devoted servants.  So was Mother Theresa.  But in the case of the former, the ideology was evil; consequently the idealists devoted to it were given over to evil.  Not so with the celebrated Christian in Calcutta. 

Whether we like it or not, or are aware of it or not, every human being is controlled by ideologies of one shape or form.